


You Shine

by bettycooper



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 17:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13486020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettycooper/pseuds/bettycooper
Summary: Betty knows Jughead doesn't sing. But when she's struggling with a song from Carrie, can she get him to let loose for like... three minutes?





	You Shine

**Author's Note:**

> If you aren't familiar with Carrie, here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW-SvTztN2A

“ _I think you hide so much you feel inside, but I know deep down there’s a fire burning bright_ ,” Betty sang, staring down at the lyrics printed on the libretto as she listened to the accompaniment recording in the Blue and Gold office that afternoon. Every free moment she was able to catch since she’d been cast in Carrie had been spent looking at her lines and lyrics, doing her best to be ‘off-book’ by the date Kevin had set for everyone at the beginning of rehearsals. And even though she thought she was doing okay… as rehearsal the previous day had clearly proved, she wasn’t exactly nailing it. She’d messed up her part of “You Shine” twice at the last rehearsal before Kevin had pulled her aside and reminded her that she needed to be looking at each of her songs as much as possible. Which was a valid note, since she hadn’t practiced the duet nearly as much as she should have, but it still stung a little. She could do better. She _would_ do better. Pausing the recording, Betty quickly repeated the line she’d just sung to herself a few times to make sure she got it right before continuing, determined to make it through the whole song by the time rehearsal was set to start. “ _From where you stand it might not be clear, but you shine from here-_ ” she continued, jumping when an unexpected compliment came her way.

 

“You sound great,” she heard from the doorway, managing a smile as the speaker in question made his physical presence known. Jughead. _Of course_ it was Jughead. She’d known it just from his voice, but most people also didn’t just swing by the Blue and Gold office.

 

“Jug, hey,” Betty greeted with a soft smile. If anyone was to see her sort of freaking out about getting the song right, she was glad that it was him. After months of weird tension and bad moments in their on-again, off-again relationship they were finally in a really good place, and seeing his face brought her nothing but comfort… and a small reminder that she should be focusing on her cute love duet. Even with the lack of a camera for musical documentary purposes (a common fixture in their relationship as of late), Jughead’s presence alone was enough of a reminder. So she focused her attention at least partly back on the music, humming a little to herself as she waited for her boyfriend to say something.

 

“How’s it going?” he finally asked, having already taken a seat in his usual spot. She hadn’t been expecting him to stay, but it seemed like he was going to hang around until rehearsal was set to start too, so Betty quickly followed his lead and sat nearby.

 

“You would think that this would be easier. I love to sing. I memorize things all the time. But I don’t know… this song is just getting to me.” It was a confession that didn’t exactly come easily to the girl, but a necessary one. She wasn’t about to lie about it to Jughead and pretend like everything was alright when it _clearly_ wasn’t.

 

“Is it because it’s a big love duet with Archie? Because Betts, we’ve talked about it, it’s-“ he started, obviously ready to reassure her, but Betty quickly cut him off. “No, that’s not it. At least, I really don’t think it is.” It was still sort of weird. In the most stressful of situations she’d done something impulsive and idiotic, reverting in a moment of weakness to a version of herself that she hadn’t ever wanted to be again. She didn’t have feelings for Archie anymore, and she hadn’t had any when she’d kissed him. It had been a stupid, life-or-death-moment mistake, and to that day she still regretted it. But there was no taking it back, so all they could do was move forward. It would’ve been a lot easier to do had she and Archie not been cast as a girlfriend and boyfriend with a kiss scene, but she wasn’t about to fault Kevin for the slight awkwardness of the casting. And she was pretty sure that kiss was not the reason why she was struggling with the song.

 

“Sing it to me,” Jughead soon suggested, pulling Betty out of her thoughts with a task to do that kept her on track. With a smile, Betty made a counteroffer that she was almost positive he would decline. “It’s a duet. Sing it _with_ me.” Maybe singing a love duet with the person she loved could help her uncover whatever it was that she had yet to figure out with the song. It could give her some motivation, a little extra something to go off of. The girl was preparing a full argument in favor of her idea, so she wasn’t at all bothered by Jughead’s first decline of the request. “You know I don’t sing, Betts,” he told her, and she acknowledged it with a nod, ready to try again. “I know, but I think this will be super useful. Come on. Please? It’d be just this once and then I won’t ask you to do it again, I swear.”

 

She could tell that there was some hesitation in the way Jughead was looking at her as she spoke, and suddenly she felt pretty good about her odds. She was even ready to meet his next argument with a solid counterargument of her own. “I don’t know it. The song, I mean. It’s not going to be at all helpful to you to have me sing it with you,” he muttered, and she gave him an encouraging look in response. “Jug, _please_. It’s a love duet. Maybe it’ll help for me to sing it with… you know, the person I love.”

 

It was as soon as she finished her sentence, her eyes trained on her boyfriend, that she realized she’d won. She knew it before he even said anything, but it wasn’t until his reluctant “Okay, okay” that she allowed the huge grin she’d been holding in to spread across her face. “Thank you! I won’t make you sing the beginning, so we can just start from where I sing,” she informed him, moving closer so they could share her libretto before she reached for her phone to rewind to the proper part of the song.

 

“Okay, I’ll just-I’ll point so you know when to talk or sing,” she soon insisted, giving him a bright smile and waiting for him to give her a cautious one of his own before she started to play the music. “ _I think you hide so much you feel inside, but I know deep down there’s a fire burning bright._ ” Oh. If that statement didn’t describe Jughead well, she wasn’t sure what did. “ _From where you stand it might not be clear, but you shine from here…_ ”

 

She wasn’t really looking at the lyrics at that point. She was more focused on Jughead, singing the words to him and actually feeling what Sue Snell was probably supposed to be feeling as the song progressed. And because of those feelings, Betty was able to understand the song better than she ever had before.

 

Quickly looking down to make sure she was pointing at the correct words for the literal duet part of the song, Betty smiled as she sang as Jughead joined in with her, doing his best and catching her off guard with how much he actually seemed to know the song. “ _No doubts, no more fears, I see you shine and the dark disappears,_ ” they sang together, a slight smirk appearing on Jughead’s face at the surprise that seemed to be on Betty’s. “ _Then I know everything is gonna be fine, because you shine. Oh how you shine. You shine,_ ” Jughead continued on his own, reading the music without any of Betty’s help by that point.

 

“You know the song,” Betty was quick to point out as the music continued, giving them a momentary break from singing. “I listen. I might’ve picked it up a little, but this is never happening again,” Jughead reinforced for her just as quickly. Betty couldn’t reply, however, because at that point it was time for her to sing again. “ _What a surprise, gazing into your eyes. I swear that I still get lost in the light. No photograph could possibly show the you I know,_ ” she continued, taking one of Jughead’s hands into hers as she moved to pull him so that they were both standing, facing each other. Jughead still had the libretto in his free hand, and his eyes were trained on it pretty hard for what Betty could only assume was the upcoming portion of lines. Betty, however, was entirely focused on singing the song to Jughead, making it clear to him that the duet was about _them_ , even if they were singing as Sue and Tommy.

 

“ _No doubts, no more fears. I see you shine and the dark disappears. I'll be your mirror and you can be mine. Look to me and you'll see just how you shine,_ ” they continued, Betty smiling as Jughead seemed to scramble a little to catch the line that was supposed to be spoken next.

 

“Oh, damn,” he started just a half-second late, seeming like he was truly trying to help her by putting on a good performance. “I have to go pick up my tux before they close.” He was doing great, honestly. Was it the proud girlfriend in her that thought he could potentially give Archie a run for his money, or was it just the truth? Hard to tell. But when it came time for her to say her line, the implication was clear. “Tommy? Thank you,” she stressed, doing her best to make it clear that it was just as much Betty thanking Jughead for doing something he was uncomfortable with to help her as it was Sue thanking Tommy. Actually… it was even more Betty than Sue, but Betty was at least trying to remain a little in character.

 

And then it was Betty’s favorite part of the song. “I love you,” Jughead murmured softly, causing the brightest, most gentle of smiles to appear on Betty’s face. She knew he was just saying it in that moment because it was part of the song, but… it was still nice to hear. And she couldn’t help but sort of shift the next line she had around so she could say it right back to him. “I love you,” she repeated, watching Jughead carefully set down the libretto before he intertwined both of their hands, just listening to her finish off the song. “He’d never said that before. That’s what I remember most about that day.”

 

Looking straight at her boyfriend, Betty let herself really try and get into Sue’s head for the last portion of the song. As the narrator, Sue Snell knew what was going to happen to Tommy. She knew that he was going to die, so the last part of the song was obviously emotional, right? If it were her, and she was thinking back on things with Jughead… “ _No doubts, no more fears. I see you shine and the dark disappears,_ ” she sang, her voice hitting all the right notes but the emotion also clear. As much as the song was a cute love duet, it was also a bittersweet look back at a relationship that came to an end all too soon for only the most tragic of reasons. Though Betty couldn’t fully relate… she did have _some_ relevant experience. And thinking back on that only drove her to finish the song, finally able to access what she had been missing in the weeks of rehearsal prior. She had been relating to Sue on the surface level, but it wasn’t until that moment, singing with Jughead, that everything clicked. And Betty suddenly felt way better about all parts of the musical that had been stressing her out. “ _Then I know everything is gonna be fine because you're mine. You shine,_ ” she eventually finished, slowly moving to grab her phone and pause the music before the next song began to play.

  
“Thank you,” she said after a moment, looking up at Jughead only to see that he was smiling back at her. “You don’t need to thank me, Betts. I should thank you. A private performance by Betty Cooper? And someone thanking me for my subpar singing? It was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. _Not_ one to be repeated.” Acknowledging his words with a slight roll of her eyes, Betty moved in just a bit to quickly press her lips to his, knowing that she couldn’t exactly get carried away seeing as… “Ahem.” Rehearsal was bound to begin at any minute, if Kevin’s sudden presence was any indicator. Pulling away from Jughead with only a hint of an embarrassed expression on her face, Betty addressed her dear friend with a confidence that she knew she’d been lacking lately. “Practicing. Jughead very graciously helped me rehearse. Be right there.” With a nod, Kevin headed off, the sound of other cast members’ voices in the hall indicating to her that it was truly time for the two of them to go. Rushing to grab her things, Betty let Jughead take her by the hand and lead her to the auditorium, the memory of the song they’d just sung together replaying in her mind for only the best of reasons.


End file.
